Paper Piecing with Cameo 4

After not doing paper piecing much for the past few years, I have been doing a lot more lately and rediscovering my love of it. I find it very relaxing and it has the extra bonus of it turning into something great when it's done!

Any good paper piecing project must have quality cardstocks that are colored throughout (solid core) and smooth. For electronic machine cutting, the weight and smoothness of the cardstock especially matters to get good clean cuts. I know I can count on CutCardStock products to perform well for me.

For this project I used several different cardstocks for the piecing. This includes Neenah Classic Crest Solar White, Pop Tone Hot Fudge, Royal Sundance Fiber Kraft, CutCardStock discount textured Yellow Jacket & Habanero, and Stardream Metallic Jupiter. These are gorgeous fall colors with a rich color palette. You can find links to these and most of the products used for this project at the end of the post.

I started by creating an embossed background using a large granule/glitter mix from Stampendous. This provides great texture for the background which slightly resembles birch tree bark. That wasn't my intention but I realized it looked a bit like that after I completed it. After embossing, I created a distressed oxide background in blended yellows, oranges and red. Water splatter also added some additional texture to the background. I find that adding a lot of texture to paper piecings really enhance them as they can tend to look a little flat on plain backgrounds.

Once the background was complete, I die cut the Thankful For You sentiment and pieced it together. Then I cut the puppy design using my Silhouette Cameo 4 machine. It's available at the Silhouette Store and it's called, "Fall Dog Sitting In Basket." There are a lot of pieces in the file but by doing one one section at a time, the pattern becomes evident. The finished piece is super cute. The crow has paper pieces for the eyes but I decided to substitute small googly eyes instead. I'm glad I did.

After cutting down the main panel down to 4 3/4" x 6 3/4", I attached it to a 5" x 7" card base made with Stardream Metallic Jupiter. It's a beautiful metallic cardstock. Double-sided foam tape was used to place the piece on the card a little right of center. Then I placed the Thankful for You sentiment and added more leaves at the base.

The finished card is cute and very cheerful. This would be a perfect card for a child or older relative. How can you not smile as this perky puppy and his crow friend?

So are you inspired yet? What can you piece to create a colorful and charming greeting for someone this fall? Take a look at your dies or patterns, maybe even get something new to play with. Just make sure you start with a great cardstock. Check out the CutCardStock today and get your fall on!

Happy Creating Everyone!
 Janet

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